Recently, payment systems and payment approaches have been proposed in which users may conduct transactions using mobile devices. In certain approaches, such as those proposed by the assignee of the present invention, users may conduct transactions using mobile devices having a mobile payment application thereon. In the proposed transactions, a “token” (such as a checkout token, or ATM token) may be captured or communicated to the mobile device. The token is used by a transaction management system to facilitate completion of the transaction between the user of the mobile device and the transaction location. For example, the transaction management system may use information associated with the token to identify the merchant (or the consumer) associated with the transaction location and to identify pending transaction information associated with the transaction location.
In some embodiments of the system introduced by the assignee of the present invention, a token is used to link two entities that wish to engage in a transaction. The system described can be used to replace the use of a magnetic stripe card and reader, which in the case of purchase transactions is used to link together, for example, a purchase transaction that is pending in a checkout lane at a store with the payment credentials of a consumer who wishes to pay the merchant for the goods associated with the pending transaction.
The transaction could be a purchase transaction, an ATM transaction, a money transfer transaction, or an authentication transaction, a check in process, or any other transaction where information needs to be exchanged between two entities. In some embodiments it is a merchant and a buyer, in others it is two people, and in others it could be a person wanting to make their presence known to a retailer so that a gas pump can be automatically turned on, or so that a bartender at a bar can know to automatically prepare their favorite drink.
It would be desirable to provide systems and methods which allow multiple transaction management systems to be involved in transactions. Further, it would be desirable to allow multiple entities or systems to perform different transaction management functions while still enabling users of mobile devices to conduct transactions in an efficient and reliable manner.
Further, it would be desirable to allow a device involved in a transaction to easily identify the appropriate transaction management system as well as the correct path or communication channel to use to communicate with the appropriate transaction management system for each transaction. For example, in transactions in which a mobile device captures a token associated with a point of transaction, the mobile device may perform processing to identify the appropriate transaction management system for use in the transaction based on information received from the token. As another example, in transactions in which a transaction terminal captures a checkout token from a mobile device, the transaction terminal may perform processing to identify the appropriate transaction management system for use in the transaction based on information received from the token.